Don wants a safe summer in eastern Bay of Plenty

Don Herdman has been spreading the word about water
safety for 25 years and reckons wives and mothers are the
best people to target to ensure water users know the
rules.

The 83-year-old former Whakatane mayor is one of a
group of wardens who patrol the Ohiwa Harbour area for the
Bay of Plenty Regional Council, enforcing rules and ensuring
people are in the correct designated areas.

“When we
talk to the people in charge of boats and jet skis we also
give information to their families and the wives are usually
the best at making sure everyone in the family is aware of
the rules and sticks to them,” he says. “Everybody needs
to know the rules.”

In the Ohiwa Harbour area where Mr
Herdman patrols there are designated areas for different
water activities – jet skiing, water skiing and jet skis
towing skiers, swimming, boating and others like sailing,
windsurfing and kayaking. Mr Herdman credits this for
keeping the harbour area relatively problem-free. Retiring
from public life in 1995 after 12 years on council, his last
term as mayor and two before that as deputy mayor, he was on
the Whakatane District Council when it established the
designated areas.

Mr Herdman lives at Ohope, overlooking
the harbour area which he patrols on foot, spreading the
water safety message among locals and visitors.

This
summer the Regional Council is focused on improving the
behaviour of jet ski users on Bay of Plenty waterways. As
the number of jet skis has increased in recent years, so
have the number of accidents, incidents and near misses
across the region. Most jet ski incidents in the Bay of
Plenty involve males aged about 17 to 30.

“Sometimes jet
skiers take off too fast and we have to remind them they
can’t go faster than 5 knots within 200 m of shore or 50 m
of other vessels or people in the water,” says Mr
Herdman.

“And if several jet skis are going out together
we will issue a strong reminder of the rules and the fact
they could be liable to a fine or prosecution if they break
them.

“We don’t have too many problems and I think
that’s because of the designated areas. Sometimes people
go where they shouldn’t but generally most are really good
and some who we’ve gotten to know after years of
patrolling help to pass on the message to others. It works
really well.”

Mr Herdman says just as jet ski users
sometimes need to be reminded of the rules, so do boaties
and swimmers and parents need to keep a close eye on where
their children are in the water to ensure they don’t
encroach on ski areas.

Over the years Mr Herdman has seen
an increase in the number of people wearing life jackets
when boating or jet skiing and he says that’s a real
positive.

“It gets pretty busy where I patrol and if
everyone is mindful of the rules and of each other, everyone
can enjoy their fun.”

Eastern Bay of Plenty
Harbourmaster Brian Spake says so far this summer water
users have been “pretty well behaved” and he wants to
see that continue.

He and his team take a preventive
approach, speaking to people before they take to the water
ensuring they know the rules and emphasising safety.

There
are about 85,000 jet ski and powerboat landings in the
Eastern Bay of Plenty every year. There is usually an influx
of jet skis during the three to four weeks from Boxing Day
and Mr Spake and his team will be speaking to everyone they
see who has one.

Jet skis are as powerful and as fast as a
car but under current laws anyone 15 and over can be in
charge of a jet ski, no licence required.

“We don’t
generally have many problems in the Eastern Bay – the
messages seem to be getting through to many people and we
hope this summer will be no different. We don’t want
anyone putting themselves or others at risk.”

This
summer’s regional jet ski safety campaign has the support
of Bay of Plenty-based professional surfer Matt Hewitt and
Olympic kayaker Luuka Jones and the whanau of teenager
Bishop Thompson, who was killed as a result of a jet ski
accident on Lake Okareka, Rotorua, in January
2011.

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